Shadowzoned
by Reader-Writer-Animator
Summary: He was the only being on Cybertron who knew exactly where Airachnid was. So he, Soundwave, was the only being capable of taking any action. Not that he would care if the sparklings on the field trip to Moon Base Two were in danger. He just liked staying in the Shadowzone and watching Cybertron. He was just making sure that there was a Cybertron to watch. Yes, that was it.
1. Field trip

**So, we all wondered what happened to Soundwave and Airachnid, right? My take on it. :)**

 **I do not own TF:P.**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

Arcee's life had finally stabilized. The war was over, though the occasional Decepticon (or even Autobot with a grudge) cropped up. By and large, there was peace. There were other bots in charge. The weight of civilization had been removed from her shoulder pads. She was free to work, free to live her life to the fullest.

For a long time, that meant joining the Law Enforcement squad. As much as she wanted a peaceful life, it was hard to envision a life without the war. She was slowly starting to get used having a normal life, seeing energon splash in fountains and not from gushing wounds, and seeing sparklings play happily rather than seeing their tiny, curled up frames litter the ground.

Arcee was also a young femme (by Cybertronian standards, anyway), with a stable income. This meant that she was eligible to adopt a sparkling. For the longest time, she desisted, for the simple reason that she didn't think that she'd be able to take care of one. Loud noises still occasionally frightened her into thinking of bombs and gunfire. Plus, being in the Quick Strike Force meant that she had long and unpredictable shifts; it simply wouldn't have worked. She wouldn't have been able to give the sparkling the care and time it needed and deserved.

Then she'd had an accident. The chords in her pede snapped, sensory nodes were burnt off permanently, the works. Ironic that it'd happened after the war, really. She was transferred to Emergency Response and walked with a bit of a hobble. The suggestions to adopt became even stronger. Finally, she caved in. She was given a choice amongst several sparklings. Her choice was obvious and easily made.

"Appasa! Appasa! Guess where we're going solar cycle-after solar cycle-after solar cycle-after tomorrow! For a field trip!"

"When is that?" Arcee asked, confused by the little whirlwind that had emerged from the door and flew straight over to her where she was sitting on her berth in their small apartment. Space was expensive in now crowded Iacon. She placed her digits on his young shoulders. "Appasa! Guess."Tailgate wailed impatiently. Yep, he was exactly like his former self.

"Ah... The energon refinery? The Hall Of Records?" Tailgate frowned. "No, we've been there before. Guess again." He widened his optics and placed the ends of the joints of his servos upon her pede joints. She thought about it for a moment. "Maybe...Optimus' conference building?"

"No!"His optics widened further. "I'll give you a hint: It's out of this world." She lifted him properly onto her lap. Primus, it seemed like he got heavier every solar cycle. "I don't know." She admitted. "Where?"

Tailgate grinned triumphantly, that same old Tailgate smile. She smiled back. "We're going to Moon Base Two!"

Arcee stared. "Moon Base Two?" Tailgate nodded, reveling in her surprise. But she was not excited like Tailgate expected her to be. Not at all. "Isn't that just an old ruin now? Is it even safe for you to be there? You're a little young, 'Gate, to be exploring Moon Base Two." Tailgate scowled. "I want to go." He said resolutely.

"We'll see about it." She said, trying to pacify him. "Are the consent forms downloaded onto your datapad?"He nodded, brightening a little, now that she was willing to give it a chance. He pulled his own datapad out of his subspace. "Here."

Arcee went through it. There would be two instructors, a medic and an expert with them, and they would make sure that the sparklings didn't go to any dangerous areas or cause any trouble. With Cybertron's restoration pending, nobot had given much thought to the restoration of Moon Bases One and Two. She was certain that some parts were pretty unstable. There was a proposal pending with the Council to restore it. Maybe, in fact, that was why now was the right time for the sparklings to go. To see a bit of old Cybertron's broken glory.

And yet... He was still a sparkling. Just seven vorns old. Much too young to be going off-world. But if his instructors thought that he was old enough, then who was she to argue? Was she just being over protective, like Jack's mom had been? Miko had called her a 'helicopter mom', she recalled. Arcee snorted and shook her head. Old stories.

She looked at Tailgate again and he stared impatiently back at her. Always impatient. Just then, she felt her comm. buzz. She put a digit to it. "Hey, 'Bee. What's up?" She could feel Tailgate's curious stare, with his odd, golden optics.

:Guess why Flora asked me to comm. you.:

Arcee smiled and raised an optic ridge. "Why?"

:She says that I make decisions faster because you always persuade me to say yes.:

Arcee snorted. Flora was Bumblebee's adopted sparkling. Though he'd adopted earlier than Arcee had, Flora had been very young at the time, and was now more or less the same age as Tailgate. Bumblebee had named her Flora, or flower, in English, but he realized too late that in older Cybertronian, _flora_ was another word for acid rain, and as a result, older Cybertronians looked at her and 'Bee a little oddly whenever she introduced herself. Flora was of small to medium build, like Tailgate, and was mostly violet with yellow highlights, in contrast to Tailgate's white and orange.

"Well? What decision do you have to make? Are you hung up on the field trip thing as well?"

There was a slight pause. :Yes.:

Arcee sighed. "I feel partly like 'Gate's too young to go... But I also feel like I'm being overprotective..."

:Me too.: Bumblebee admitted. There was silence for a moment. The pause was too long for Tailgate to stand. "I want to go. I'll be _fine_. I'm _seven_ vorns old already. It's just for a day-"

"Be quiet." Arcee commanded. Tailgate made a face but complied. "Well, 'Bee? Do you think they should go?

:I guess they could...: There was cheering at both ends of the lines. :But they have to promise to listen to everything their instructors say during the trip. And they're not allowed to wander off. You have to stick with the group, Flora.:

"That goes for you too, Tailgate."

"So I get to go?"Arcee smiled. "Yes.

"Yes!"He grinned and hugged her. That just made her more nervous about the whole thing. He was still so young...

* * *

The solar cycle of the trip finally arrived. Arcee gave Tailgate a dozen instructions. "Be careful."

"Yes, Appasa."

"Don't wander off.

''Okay."

"Listen to everything the instructors and the expert tell you. And the medic. Though, hopefully, he shouldn't have to tell you anything."

"Ye- _es._ "

"I mean it, Tailgate. If I hear a single complaint-"

"Okay, okay! I will. Bye, Appasa!"

"Bye-"

She watched him run out of their apartment to the school, a mere fifteen mechanometers away. Something told her to pull him back. He was still too young, much too young. And... She couldn't shake off the intense feeling that something was about to happen. War had told her to listen to her instincts. Yet, she shook her helm. She had to let him go. It was no use being overprotective like this. Besides, there were two instructors, a medic and an expert going with them. They would make sure that the sparklings would be all right... Right?

* * *

Tailgate grinned as he caught up with Flora. "Hey!" She smiled back at him, excited. "We're going to the moon! How _awesome_ is that?"

"Oh, Primus, are we going to have to deal with their yelling the whole trip?" Tailgate looked up to see a crimson mech staring irritably at him. A little confused, he made a silly face at the mech, sticking his glossa out as far as it would go, before running along to join his other friends. The mech rolled his optics.

The cyan instructor standing next to him eyed the former 'Con apprehensively. He hadn't been her first choice for a medic – that had been Ratchet, as he was one of the older mechs in Iacon and had likely been to Moon Base One. But Ratchet was naturally busy as one of the most skilled doctors in the city. So he'd sent a mech named Knockout. She hadn't known that he was a 'Con, but the optics gave it away, even if he now sported a shiny new Autobot badge. His 'reformed Decepticon' status made her uneasy, and he knew it, which was why he tried to act like a 'Con as much as he could just to annoy her.

"Well, ah, Tranquil, is it? When are we leaving?"

"In half a breem. When they're done saying their prayers."

The former 'Con snorted. "Prayers, smayers. They don't make you anymore holy than sitting in a garage makes you a car. You'd think the High Council would've learned that from the war, but now, really, when does the bureaucracy learn anything?"

Tranquil frowned. "What's a garage?" Knockout sighed. "Never mind. Forget I said it." The tone of his voice indicated that he thought her too ignorant to understand anything. Okay, she had been sparked after the war had ended and she was much younger than him. But the condescension in his voice got her gears in a grind. She itched to vocalize it, but she steeled herself and remembered that Knockout would only be staying for the solar cycle. After that, she was completely free not to associate with him.

The mech smirked, as though he knew that he'd agitated her sensors.

To Tranquil's relief, the sparklings soon streamed out of the academic building. They were followed by Tipoff, their other instructor. "Pilot ready to go?" He yelled. She nodded. The sparklings cheered. "Okay, then. Tell her to bring the craft here." She put a servo to her comm. link. "Diffractal, we're ready."

"Bringing the _Artemis_ over." Diffractal said and cut off the link. She was yet another War veteran. Tranquil was glad that she'd been able to make the time to show some young sparks a bit of Cybertron's old glory. "Where's the expert?" Tipoff asked. Tranquil shuttered her optics. "Oh, he said that he'll be coming in a few moments. There's a bit of traffic at Vector Crossing.

In a little while, a dark brown and yellow four-wheeler zoomed up to the gates and promptly transformed into a bulky looking mech. "I'm not late, am I?" He wondered nervously. "It's okay, the _Artemis_ isn't here yet." Tranquil reassured him. The mech beamed. "Good. These are the sparklings, are they? Hello, young sparks!" He called out to all of them. "I'm Magnify, the only surviving expert on Cybertron's two moons."

"Were you in the war?"A sparkling asked. Beside her, she heard Knockout sigh. For once, she agreed with him. To some extent that was all the sparklings cared about. Well, it was only expected. It had been twenty-six vorns since Megatron had left for his exile, yet, traces of the war could be seen everywhere. It was something the sparklings still had trouble understanding. The War loomed over them all like the dark shadow of a cloud.

"No, I was a Neutral, actually."

"But you have blue optics!"Another sparkling, Flicker, protested. "That means you're an Autobot." Magnify laughed. "Never judge a bot by their optic color." He chided.

There was a loud whirring sound and they all looked up to see the _Artemis_ descending in the large school grounds. She was a large, dark craft with silver highlights on the sides. It seemed to be the very embodiment of stealth and speed. Tranquil was surprised that such a sleek, expensive looking ship had been chosen for their mission. As she examined it a bit more, she realized that she was, in fact, pre-war.

Some of the sparklings hooted. "Everybot quiet," Tipoff commanded, "Or you won't get to board." The ship slowly slipped down from the sky. Finally, it docked and settled on the ground. After a moment, the door opened and a spunky violet femme with an angular frame strode out. The class oohed. "Well? What're you waitin' for?" She demanded. They rushed forward. Tipoff's admonitions and pleas to be quiet, enter one at a time and in a straight line were all forgotten as all the sparklings tried to be the first to enter the craft. Diffractal saw Tranquil staring at the craft and laughed. "Don't gape. Looks are all she's got. She runs way too slow and loud for a stealth ship now, so they lent her to me."

Tranquil nodded and followed the last few sparklings into the ship. Knockout boarded behind her, and as she caught his smirk she found herself wishing that she'd applied to the local clinic for a medic instead. Frag him. On second thought, no, don't frag him. That would be disgusting. Slag it all.

* * *

 **So how was the first chapter? Like it? No? Yes? Tell me in a review!**


	2. Encounter

**Here's the next chapter.**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

Soundwave was concerned for the first time in twenty-six vorns.

When the pesky humans had stuck him in the shadowzone, he had been annoyed, at first. Then angry. Then simply energon depleted. The humans, for their part, had conveniently forgotten to mention him to the Autobots, meaning that Knockout and the Vehicons got amnesty, but he was stuck in there for about seventeen solar cycles until he finally managed to figure out how to get out with a single groundbridge.

At first, he had reveled in his freedom and the joy of touching things again. Then he stole some energon from the Autobots and had a good long think. He concluded that, a)there was no point in going back to his former master, b)he would rather rust than work for Starscream or Shockwave, c) his war crimes were heinous and the Autobots would most likely exile or kill him, therefore, d)the shadowzone was probably the friendliest place on Cybertron. For now.

So he decided to go back to the shadowzone, and strayed out of it only to steal energon. He watched as the Autobots slowly rebuilt their world. Occasionally, where he felt there was a need, he interfered - making a computer more easily hackable, or providing a clue or two to the law enforcement, even once helping a bot get away. He almost came to enjoy his unique position on Cybertron.  
And then, Airachnid came back to haunt him.

At first, the Autobots hadn't bothered with the two moons, concentrating on rebuilding Cybertron, one city at a time. Then peace and good town planning (courtesy of Bulkhead) lead to prosperity, and the Council relaxed enough to let a group of sparklings visit Moon Base 2 for a field trip.

Hence Soundwave's concern.

He had known that sending Airachnid to Moon 2 was a stupid idea, especially at a time when the Decepticons were trying to rebuild the Omega Lock, but he'd done it anyway because it was the first place he could think of in the 0.839 nanoseconds when she'd attacked him. Also, there was less chance of her trying to wipe their species out from Moon 2.

In addition, he was the only being on Cybertron who knew where exactly Airachnid was. The only other in the galaxy was Lord Megatron, but then he didn't matter any more. So he, Soundwave, was the only being capable of taking any action.

He was not really concerned about the sparklings themselves - he didn't know any of them personally (not that he would have cared if he had) and the Well of Allsparks would produce more, if it came to that. Besides, there were plenty of new couples on Cybertron. What worried him was what Airachnid might do with a ship.

He had been checking on Airachnid around twice a vorn. Her energon reserves had eventually stabilized and reached equilibrium, but a kind of irrational hunger remained. She continued to use her insecticons for energon, commanding them to stay in stasis till she needed them. In other words, she was her usual malicious self, just more driven. He was sure that the only reason she was not trying to attack Cybertron was that she had no means of getting there.

In such a situation, sending a spaceship there, even one as burned out as the Artemis, was like sending an invite. And if Airachnid managed to get to Cybertron, she would definitely cause chaos and upset whatever peace the Autobots had managed to create. As a Decepticon, he should have been the first one to celebrate, really, but...as hard as it was to admit, he liked seeing his world alive again. And more than that, he loved his position of unseen power on Cybertron.

If there was anything that defined Soundwave, it was that he was loyal to his cause. So he finally decided to save it.

He glided onto the Artemis, unseen, behind the crowd of sparklings, and found a comfortable corner to rest in inside the cockpit as the former stealth ship took off.

* * *

Soundwave disengaged Laserbeak in order to do a quick scan of Moon 2. Search parameters: Thermal and not in 2 mechanometer range.

He ignored the sparklings, who were oohing and aahing. He noticed that Knock Out was with them, and stored that information away for future consideration. The sparklings were quickly organized into two lines by their teachers and made to walk to the towering telescope in front : Moon Base 2.

Ping. Soundwave sifted through the data he had received from Laserbeak. _Negative_. He conveyed. Thermal upsurge due to lava pores. _Continue search. Add thermal upsurge: 5%-50% to search parameters._

Soundwave took another look at the tall building and the outlines of a plan began to form in his mind. He strode straight through the bumbling sparklings, who paused to poke at bits of moon rock or comment on the dark, bleak landscape. As the moons didn't have an atmosphere, the sky was inky black and strewn with stars. The newlings had never seen such a sky in light polluted Iacon. Soundwave was used to it from his long voyage on the Nemesis, so he didn't give it much thought.

At the back of the building, he did another scan by himself (parameters: presence of silicon, germanium,gold and silver at 90% concentration or above) and easily located the telescope's CPU. Then he moved through the back wall into the CPU unit. From there, it was a simple matter of stepping out from the Shadowzone, feeding the machine enough energon to boot it up, extending his data cables and hacking into the system.

Command Prompt: ?  
User: 5177DA88S-42  
Command Prompt: Accptd  
Dsgnton?  
User: Soundwave  
Command Prompt: Accptd  
Remote Cmnd Trnsfrd To "Soundwave"  
Freqncy: 88S-42  
Soundwave: Open File 444  
Command Prompt: "Security" Files? (Y/N)  
Soundwave: Y  
Command Prompt: Provide Authrisaton Freqncy?  
Soundwave: 88S-42  
Command Prompt: Accptd  
Entrnces  
Alarms  
Camras  
Guns  
Soundwave: Open Entrnces  
Command Prompt: Entrnces Main  
Secndry  
Emrgncy  
Windws  
Mirors  
Soundwave: Open Main  
Command Prompt: Main  
Soundwave: Open  
Command Prompt: -TITANIUM SHIELD  
-LASER  
Satisfied with these options, he kept the program running in the background, and stepped back into the Shadowzone.

Ping. Again, Soundwave received data from Laserbeak. _Positive_ , He conveyed. _Perform rough perimeter search to confirm._

Laserbeak swooped towards the thermally bright figure around 50 mechanometers from Soundwave's position. As they were both in the Shadowzone, there was no danger of being seen. He made out the cruel horns on Airachnid's helm. She had sensed the sparklings' fresh energon, or at least heard them. _Confirmed. Calculate ETA._

 _ETA=2 breems._

 _Set timer and return_. Laserbeak came back to him, and Soundwave went round the telescope to observe the sparklings again. In order for his plan to work, all the sparklings and their caretakers would have to be inside within two breems. Hopefully, they would, or it would be chaos. And most of them would wind up dead.

Not that he cared very much about that. (Did he?)

The moon expert Magnify - Soundwave recalled that Shockwave had tortured him for information on Trypticon - lectured the sparklets about the giant telescope and its creators. 1.5 breems to arrival.

He started talking about the scope's mirror alignment, and one of the teachers interrupted him to scold an orange sparkling for throwing moon rocks at another's helm. 1 breem to arrival. It looked like loss of life would be inevitable. There were simply too many of them for Soundwave to protect alone.

Magnify finished his speech, and the femme teacher treated the bored sparklings to yet another lecture on do's and don'ts inside the structure. 0.5 breems to arrival. Soundwave did not grimace, because he did not care. In theory.

The sparklings finally lined up to go inside. They were awfully slow, because the instructors insisted that they go in a straight line. Soundwave did not consider showing himself to speed things up, because if he did, he would have to kill them to protect his place on Cybertron.

0 breems to arrival. The dark shape of Airachnid appeared on the horizon. He could hear her hiss 7 mechanometers away. He accessed the program and input, Activate TITANIUM SHIELD. The door of the building slammed shut and a gleaming titanium sheet slammed down over it. There. Now even if he was somehow incapacitated, Airachnid wouldn't be able to access it.

There was a loud banging on the door, and Soundwave realised that six sparklings had been left outside. Oh well. Airachnid was too close to do anything now.

He detached Laserbeak and stepped out of the Shadowzone.

Airachnid hissed at the sight of him. She recognized him, apparently. The sparklings squeaked and trembled.

Soundwave extended his data cables and calmly waited until Laserbeak was behind her. They always underestimated him. And they always, always underestimated Laserbeak.

"Energon..." She moaned, showing the weird sucker like appendage that all Dark Energon zombies had. The pounding behind the door stopped abruptly as the sparklings screamed and Laserbeak fired his first shots.

The spider skittered to the side and shot her webs. "Get back!" A recording of Megatron roared at the sparklings, who were frozen with fear. They were blocking his way.

"Run-to the-back!" Multiple voices cried, as he transformed into jet mode and dive-bombed the ex Con. This was it.

* * *

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	3. Failure

**Hope you liked that chapter! Here's the next.**

 **Enjoy.**

* * *

"That was Megatron's voice!" Magnify was almost hysterical. "He's out there-"

"With the sparklings-?!" Tranquil punched the door several times, to no avail, of course. The remaining sparklings looked terrified. "Frag it, frag it, frag it!"

Knockout frowned. "But the big M is in voluntary exile..."

"Don't you even say another word! You must have been the one who called him here, you two faced Decepticon!"

Knockout bared his dentas. "Listen, you street slag-"

"Run-to the-back!"

The words were muffled, and yet there was no mistaking that there were several voices. "Starscream? And Shockwave too?" Magnify looked ready to collapse. "And...Knockout?"

"But how could he both inside and outside?" Tipoff demanded.

"It's Soundwave." Knockout said with quiet certainty. "But - how?" Tranquil asked. "What happened to him after the Great War?"

"Nobot knows." Knockout snapped. "We've got to find a way to contact Cybertron. Since comm.s won't work this long range. And we can't access the ship."

"What about using this computer?" Diffractal suggested, patting a terminal. "The program for controlling the main door is on the screen." Magnify flew over to it, quickly typing in Deactivate TITANIUM SHIELD. "Though how in Primus's name the CPU is running after so many vorns, I have no idea..."

"Soundwave must have done something to it." said Tipoff darkly.

Command Prompt: Provide Authrisaton Freqncy?  
User: 13G-75  
Command Prompt: DENIED

"He's hacked into it, my old frequency won't work. I can't shut it off!"

"Can't you open up a parallel program to try to contact Cybertron?" demanded.

Magnify swallowed. "I can try."

He kept running in the background and opened file 800. A sparkling started to cry, and that set the others off as well. Tranquil and Tipoff rushed to comfort them.

Command Prompt: "Communication" Files? (Y/N)  
User: Y  
Command Prompt:  
User: Open

"Thank Primus these files aren't protected."

Command Prompt: -TEXT  
-VOICE  
-IMG  
User: Activate VOICE  
Command Prompt: Enter Comm. Freqncy  
User: 100

That was the official number of the Iaconian emergency services.

There was a loud _beeeeep_ followed by, "Hello, Iacon Law Enforcement, how may I help you?"

Magnify found himself unable to speak, so Knockout roughly pushed him aside and laid down the situation in brief. "You need to get here, now."

A scream split the air, and for a long moment, everybot stood stock still. It had come from outside.

"Hurry!" Diffractal roared.

"We'll be there in 0.2 breems." The operator stuttered. "Hold on tight and keep calm. And don't try to get outside - we're coming as fast as we can." Then she closed the link. "As if we have a choice." Tipoff muttered.

* * *

He had failed.

He was better than her in combat - that had always been true - but her hunger for energon had changed her. She had become wise to his groundbridge trick, and to be honest, he no longer felt like using it. He wanted to finish Airachnid off once and for all, not leave her to fester on some planet for twenty-six more vorns.

But now she had managed to injure him instead, and would have finished him off if it weren't for the ship. Evidently, she still had a tiny bit of power left in her processor.

The ship. Stupid, stupid. He'd been so focused on protecting those sparklings and their minders that he simply hadn't thought about securing the ship.

Why?

Because he did care about them, in the end. Enough to forget his true purpose of protecting Cybertron. And that had made him sloppy. She was smart. She wouldn't go for targets that were too big for her to handle. She'd go for the weak, the young, the defenseless. He knew that it would be a long time before she was caught, and given the speed of Cybertronian bureaucracy, vorns and vorns before they figured out what to do with her.

He'd screwed it all. He watched sullenly from the ground as she skimmed towards the ship. She'd defeated him, then tossed him down like a piece of scrap when she noticed it. He tried to take comfort in the fact that the six sparklings were had escaped. Even if three of them had been injured pretty badly.

Airachnid was almost at the ship.

Then a groundbridge appeared between them. Airachnid paused cautiously. Then the Autobots burst out. Leading them was the blue Autobot femme from earth. Her optics widened when she saw Airachnid and she started blasting immediately.

Then everything went dark.

* * *

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	4. Amnesty of a Sort

**Here's the last chappie! Hope you liked it so far.**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

When he came to, he was still lying on the ground; however, he was face side up this time. He could see only the charcoal black sky above, so he sat up slowly. He checked that Laserbeak was still with him. Assured that the minicon was, he stared around.

A dozen Autobot Emergency Responders and Enforcers were milling about. Concerned formers were with their excited sparklings. One pair was crying. He hoped that nobot had died because of his foolishness in not securing the ship.

Everybot was ignoring Soundwave entirely.

For a moment, he thought that he was still in the Shadowzone, but the colours did not seem muted enough. No, he was not in the Shadowzone - he could touch the moon rocks and roll them between his slim fingers. And yet they were ignoring the Decepticon Third In Command in their midst.

He noted that his injuries had been patched up, so he had not been ignored completely.

Finally, he decided that if he was going to leave, he might as well do it now, while nobot seemed to care one way or the other. He had no desire to face an Autobot tribunal. So he got up gingerly, retreated some distance from the crowd and opened up a ground bridge to the Shadowzone.

"Soundwave!"

He glanced round to see the blue Autobot femme from earth running towards him, holding a subdued orange and white sparkling. That mechling had been one of the six left outside, Soundwave recalled. The teachers had made him stand last because he had been throwing rocks, and his friend, the violet femmeling, had stood with him. Foolish sparkling. He turned back to the portal. He did not want to converse with either of them. He did not want to hear their thanks or reproaches. Better to just disappear and never be found again.

"Soundwave, please wait."

Something in her voice made him turn around.

"I just wanted to say...thank you."

He nodded and observed her faceplate. She looked harassed, and she had been limping while coming towards him. But there was sincerity in her voice.

"And you saved those sparks today...we won't forget. We're all in your debt."

He nodded again. He hadn't been spoken to in nearly twenty-six vorns. It was odd.

"If you want to go-" she gestured towards the portal "-then you can. We won't try force you to stay or anything."

He appreciated her use of the word try.

"But if you don't want to...if you ever want to lead a normal life, on Cybertron...then I'll help you."

He cocked his helm, amused. Why on Cybertron would he ever want a normal life? He extended a thin digit to point towards the portal.

"As you wish. My offer will always stand."

He raised the same digit to the bottom of his visor in a shh gesture.

"Yeah. I know." She smiled. "You don't exist."

"Hey! Soundwave!" It was the yellow Autobot from earth. Soundwave shifted. He wanted to get going before he attracted too much attention. Already bots were looking at them, and their gazes were not particularly friendly.

"Hey. You saved a lot of lives today. I want to thank you. It could've been a lot worse if it weren't for you."

He made an effort to nod.

"And, ah, if you ever want to, you know, come back, then you'll be granted full amnesty."

"Bumblebee!" Arcee scolded. "Don't make promises you don't know if you can keep."

"Don't worry, 'Cee. I can persuade Ultra Magnus. Leave that to me. But do you want to become an Autobot?"

Soundwave grew still. In Knockout's fussy voice, he mused, "I am neither Autobot nor Decepticon. Than what am I," He cocked his helm to one side again, "An Autoboticon, or," he moved it to the other, "a Deceptibot?"

Bumblebee snorted. "Whatever you like." He held out a servo for Soundwave to shake. Soundwave automatically took a step back, before deciding to trust him.

He nodded at them both, and just for fun, showed them a smiley face icon. Then he left and resolved never to be seen again.

* * *

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